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Wednesday, July 21, 2010

I have a friend with a green thumb. I don't know about all of you, but my thumb is about as green as an overripe banana. My friend on the other hand has an overwhelmingly abundant garden with several kinds of lettuce, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, pickles, squash, a ton of herbs and probably a ton of other things I can't even keep track of. So when she called me to make pickles I rushed right over. She had a recipe for sweet pickles that need to sit for a month to mature, but once we had those bottled we got restless. "But I want something now! All this work and nothing to taste, what gives?" So we went out back and using my tiny little key chain flash light (it was dark by then and I was not patient enough to wait for her to find an actual flash light) I filled up my shirt with about a dozen more beautiful pickles. We snipped off some dill growing nearby and headed back in. I hopped online and found this recipe

In a small non-reactive pan, bring water, vinegar, salt, and sugar to a boil. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Place pepper, allspice, mustard, and celery seeds in the bottom of two clean quart-size ball jars or one great big half liter jar like I did. Pack cucumbers in tightly, the more you pack in, the more you'll have in the end. Drop garlic pieces into the jar around and between cucumbers.

Carefully pour your brine over your cucumbers, being sure to cover them completely (you should have approx. 4 cups brine after boiling and cooling and you’ll probably have a little left over), and place dill sprigs on the top of the jar before sealing very well. Turn and shake jar until seeds have distributed throughout the brine. Place in refrigerator for at least 24 hours.
Try not to sneak any out of the jar early, but after the 24 hours...yum! Pickles! Take THAT Claussen!

That's a good question, but unfortunately they go so fast in my house that I can't really give you a max time. They aren't completely "canned" so I don't think they'll last longer then a month, but I'd say just use your judgement and don't eat them if you see the brine getting cloudy or odd discoloration on the pickles. The garlic might turn colors, but that shouldn't be a problem. Hope that helps.

Oh... my... gosh! These turned out soooo well! So tasty, and so much better than store-bought pickles! I've never tried making them before, and I've already been through a jar of them! So yummy, I am definitely saving this recipe!